(1) Technical Field
The present invention relates, in general, to an apparatus for driving a wearable robot and, more particularly, to an apparatus for driving a wearable robot that is capable of moving a plurality of joints using one driver and a wire.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Wearable robots are designed to be directly worn by a user and assist the user working in industrial fields, and are each made up of an upper limb corresponding to user's upper body and a lower limb corresponding to user's lower body. The upper limb is provided with an arm that is coupled to user's arm and cooperates with the user's arm as if it were part of his or her body. Therefore, when an unassisted user cannot lift or carry a heavy object by himself or herself normally, the robotic arm functions to assist the user with his/her work, so that the user can lift or carry the heavy object.
Generally, the robotic arm is equipped with a plurality of joints and a plurality of motors installed in the joints so as to allow smooth movement along with the user's arm. The plurality of motors is appropriately driven to move the robotic arm according to the movement of a user's arm.
This conventional structure can be found from the disclosure of Korean Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-2012-0059305 (entitled “SHOULDER ARTICULATION STRUCTURE OF WEARABLE ROBOT”). In the above reference, a shoulder articulation structure of a wearable robot includes a slide having a guide groove passing through the center thereof a pitch driving motor connected to the slide so as to be able to move forward and backward, a linkage, one side of which is connected to the pitch driving motor and is inserted into the guide groove, and the other side of which is provided outside the slide, a roll driving motor connected to an end of the linkage provided outside the slide, and a rotary arm that is rotatably connected to the roll driving motor.
However, when such a conventional structure is used, it is difficult to avoid increasing the weight of the wearable robot due to the plurality of driving motors. This causes the user to have difficulty doing his/her work using the wearable robot.
The foregoing is intended merely to aid in the understanding of the background of the present invention, and is not intended to mean that the present invention falls within the purview of the related art that is already known to those skilled in the art.